We stepped up the pressure on cruel retailers still selling fur to honor Fur Free Friday this year. We hit the streets in Los Angeles and Portland and empowered In Defense of Animals supporters to send thousands of letters to Max Mara and display our window clings in the windows of fur-free retailers.

Fur Free Friday was founded in 1986 on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year. It is the longest-running day of animal activism. At the time of its inception, every large department store had a fur department and there were multiple fur salon stores in many major cities. 

Downtown Portland, Oregon had a bad fur habit. Now, thanks to the relentless pressure of activists supported by In Defense of Animals, there are no stores in Portland that sell new fur! However, Louis Vuitton, which is owned by LVMH, is one of the last holdouts. It still sells fur products online and in some shops outside of Portland, as well as parading fur in fashion shows. The designer is well aware that fur production is extremely cruel. 

Around 30 compassionate citizens gathered with signs at our protest with Animal Rights Collective Portland. We chanted loudly to raise awareness and encourage the fashion house to enact a fur-free policy. Our centerpiece was a gory pile of fur coats which we doused in artificial blood on the sidewalk to show shoppers the price animals pay for fur.

Our eye-catching display of bloody fur coats certainly turned heads and vividly showed shoppers that Louis Vuitton has blood on its hands. We were happy to see that Portland’s city of animal lovers showed up in force on Fur Free Friday.

Many luxury fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Gucci, and Michael Kors have adopted a fur-free policy. These companies have accepted that forcing animals to experience lives of extreme pain and suffering for fashion is unacceptable. Louis Vuitton must get on board with this reality by immediately enacting a fur-free policy.

Louis Vuitton is now facing an international pressure campaign because it is instrumental in promoting real fur as a luxury brand and status symbol through millions of dollars in advertising and celebrity partnerships. During this busy shopping season, activists in U.S. cities including Chicago, New York City, Portland, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, Las Vegas, and Dallas participated while worldwide, Toronto, London, and Antwerp, Belgium did the same. We will continue to escalate our pressure campaign aimed at Louis Vuitton until it goes fur-free.

In Los Angeles, we joined Last Chance for Animals and dozens of local activists for a powerful march on Rodeo Drive urging stores to stop selling fur nationally and internationally. Following years of campaigning, California became the first state to ban the sale of new fur products in 2019. This law went into effect on January 1, 2023! One activist at the march successfully reported a store that continued to sell fur illegally and encouraged other activists to report local retailers and make enforcement a priority. 

We protested heavily in front of Max Mara to support our recent alert imploring CEO Luigi Maramotti to stop selling fur and pledge to go fur free. Max Mara currently sells coats with fox trim and fox cuffs. Earlier this year a shocking investigation exposed the horrendous conditions foxes farmed in Finland for Max Mara and other brands endure.

Footage obtained on multiple farms shows foxes left with injuries and deformities, cubs cannibalizing dead siblings, and “monster foxes” who have been selectively bred with huge skin folds to produce more fur causing infections and preventing them from bearing their own weight.

Please support our work to end the fur trade by signing our alert and making a donation today. Visit furkills.org to discover many exciting ways to make a difference for fur-bearing animals right now.

You can also watch Ending Real Fur, an award-winning movie available to watch for free on UnchainedTV.